Alice Lun Yee
Memorial Service 12 9 2006
11:00 AM
Call to Worship
The Psalmist says, “As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
The Psalmist says, “Have hope in God…” (Psalm 42:1,2,5)
Today, we come with the hope in the living God to remember and celebrate the life of Alice Lun Yee who was born on March 28, 1930 and returned home to be with the Lord on November 17, 2006. We have gathered in this sanctuary because Alice Yee attended this church, enjoyed reading the Bible, sang in the church choir and made this church her home place so that she can be home with God while she was living and now we know in faith that she is home with God in heaven. On behalf of Barry and Sarah Yee, I welcome you today to this Memorial Service and pray that in these few moments that you have taken away from this busy holiday season that your presence would be a blessing on Barry and Sarah, an inspiration to you and your faith, and a praise to God by your desire to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Let us pray.
The psalmist longed for you, O God. As the deer longs for the water of a clear-running brook, so did he long to see your face, because of the suffering his enemies were inflicting on him. We, too, long for you, O God, for comfort from you, because our last enemy, death, has taken someone we love from us. But we have seen your face, O God, in the face of Jesus, your Son. And we know that he defeated death, his last enemy and ours. Let your Spirit reassure us at this time, vividly, that the one we miss, Alice Lun Yee is now seeing you face to face and that, by your grace, we may join her when you call us home. For Jesus’ sake, we pray. Amen.
*Opening Hymn #442 ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
Scripture Readings Psalm 23 James Chuck
Biography Barry Yee
Words of Remembrance—Open Sharing
Message—A Home with Many Rooms
The final conversations of Jesus with his disciples, preserved for us by John in chapters 14 through 17 of his gospel, are among our most cherished sources of comfort when in the presence of that inevitable fact of life, death. The opening words of chapter 14 are particularly meaningful and reassuring, because here Jesus talks about death as the journey home and about life beyond death as life in our new home. The trip home may be easy or rough, untimely or timed with divine grace. Barry speaks about his mother’s return home to God where the streets are made of gold. For Christians, however, there can be no doubt about the destination. If you are a child of God through Jesus Christ, you may look forward to sharing his risen life with him in the presence of his Father, who is also your Father. Beyond death, there is life—in the Father’s house.
The metaphor of heaven as God’s home, where we hope to be with God for all eternity, is well-known. At the beginning of John 14, Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.” This is truly nourishment for our faith and hope.
The image suggests a home that is spacious, comfortable, gracious. There is something theologically right about picturing heaven as God’s home, designed by the artistic God, sufficiently big for God’s vast family, and filled with love, which all the members of the family share with God and with one another.
The image of the home with many rooms also symbolizes the diversity of God’s people. Even within Jesus’ disciples, there were not just contrasts but extremes—like Matthew, the tax collector for Rome, and Simon the Zealot, the armed rebel against Rome. And by the time of the early church, the ranks of Christians had grown so greatly in both numbers and diversity that you had to picture God’s house with many rooms—just to accommodate everyone! We can’t even imagine the need for “personal space” in God’s house when God’s people are so diverse. There are many rooms as Jesus promised!
The image of the home with many rooms also suggests reunion. In God’s house, there will be the people who made God real for us in this life. There will be some people whose love made it possible for us to believe in a God of love. In God’s house, we will find Alice Yee who now occupies one of God’s many rooms. We hope to see this multitude of people again and to be reunited with them in God’s house.
It is touchingly beautiful that John, the Gospel writer has Jesus stake his truthfulness on this promise of heaven as our new home. Jesus was unsparingly truthful with his disciples. Whoever was seeking a crown, Jesus would offer him a cross, just as he himself would be wearing a crown of thorns. So if he was truthful about everything in this life, we can well afford to trust his promise of life beyond death, in the Father’s house, where there would be many rooms.
But the most important and most comforting part of the promise follows still. “I go to prepare a place for you,” says the Lord. “I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” As Christians facing death like all other mortal human beings, we do not really know anything beyond this: that when God reclaims our life, his gift, when we pass through death, we shall be with Jesus, our risen Lord. This alone matters. This alone is sure. In God’s home, there is a room for us and outside that room on the door plate, we’ll find our name.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we praise you for your supreme gift, your Son Jesus, the Christ. We praise you for his humanity and his humility. We praise you for his obedience to accomplish your will.
Born into a humble family, he shared his life with us. Openhearted toward sinners, he accepts us. Full of pity toward the sick and the grieving, he heals us. Concerned about our ignorance, he teaches us. Dying for our sins, he redeems us. Raised from death by your power, he gives us hope for life beyond death with him.
We thank you, gracious Father, for demonstrating to us, through his resurrection, that for those who cast their lot with him, death does not have the last word, and for giving us, in his church, a foretaste of the communion of saints, in which time and space are transcended and death is no more. Amen.
*Closing Hymn #422 Amazing Grace
*Benediction
On behalf of Barry and Sarah Yee, I thank you for your presence today. May your time here serve as an encouragement of your own faith in God and trust in the Lord with your life.
Remember, beloved brothers and sisters: God has promised to bless us and keep us in this life and in our new life with the Lord.
The same God whose face now shines on our friend, Alice Lun Yee, has promised through the Lord, to forgive us and to shelter us throughout eternity for in God’s house, there are many rooms.
I charge you to find your comfort and peace in these gracious promises of a loving God.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.